Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 19 April 2008
Clerical Memoir Published
In recent years the Columba Press has built up an impressive catalogue of clerical reminiscences, memoirs and biographies in which the Church of Ireland has been well represented. The latest example of this genre Over my shoulder: a memoir by the Revd Norma McMaster was published earlier this month.
Norma McMaster was ordained in 2004 into what was then called the auxiliary ministry and is now styled the non-stipendiary ministry, and served in the Dublin inner city parish of St George and St Thomas until her retirement in 2007. However, her family background was Presbyterian and this memoir is largely concerned with growing up as a Presbyterian in Co. Cavan in the 1940s and 1950s, going off to boarding school and then on to university, first in Magee College, Derry and then Trinity. A period of eight years in Canada was followed by a return to Ireland, the discovery of the Church of Ireland and a call to ordination.
Described by Eugene McCabe as ‘a gentle and valuable memoir of otherness permeated with unashamed nostalgia, great accuracy of detail, familial love and a sense of neighbourly affection’, this book recreates a world which now barely exists but which many can still remember.
Today (Saturday) the Church of Ireland Historical Society meets in the Robinson Library, Armagh, under the chairmanship of the Dean of Armagh, the Very Revd Patrick Rooke, where inter alia there will be papers on the vexed question of tithes and on the seventeenth polymath Archbishop James Ussher whose voluminous correspondence, edited by Dr Elizabeth Boran, is shortly to be published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a lunchtime recital by the Mountain View High School Madrigal Choir from the silicon valley area of north California.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the Strathearn Chamber Choir will sing at the Eucharist in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, where Evensong will be sung by the Lassus Scholars.
On Monday the Archbishop of Dublin will join with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in the blessing of the new Education & Research Centre at Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross, and on Tuesday he will celebrate the Eucharist at a Quiet Day for retired clergy at Manresa House. Dr Neill will be in England on Friday where he will attend the consecration of the new Bishop of Sodor and Man, Canon Robert Peterson, York Minster.
The Meath and Kildare Diocesan Clerical Conference will be held in Westport from Monday until Wednesday on the theme ‘The Happy Priest’ – an exploration into the ways in which an essential ‘joy in vocation’ has been eroded ion present day Irish culture and how this may be addressed. The principal speakers at the conference will be Fr Liam Ryan, former Professor of Sociology in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and Fr Bernard Treacy OP from Dominican Publications.
On Thursday the Bishop of Cork will preside at a continuing ministerial education day for the clergy of his diocese. The guest speaker will be the Revd Steven Croft, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions of Church.
Applications are invited for the Archbishop of Dublin’s Certificate in Church Music course for 2008-9 which is run by the Dublin and Glendalough Church Music Committee. The syllabus covers the skills and knowledge required by church musicians working in the local church – organ tuition, choir training and liturgy. Further information may be had from www.churchmusicdublin.org or from Mrs Jacqueline Mullen, 23 Ludford Park, Dublin 16 (01-2988923).